Religious Involvement and Self-Perceived Spiritual Health: A Quantitative Study of Canadian Children with Disabilities

Abstract

This study presents a national analysis of 24,190 young Canadians in which relationships between religious group involvement and the spiritual health of children with and without disabilities is described. Two key findings emerged: 1) Children who report religious involvement report higher self-rated importance of spiritual health compared with non-involved peers; 2) among involved children, spiritual health was rated as less important among three groups of young people in particular: those with multiple disabilities, those with a learning exceptionality and those with behavioural disorders. Implications for inclusive ministry are discussed.

Keywords:

• Adolescence
• church
• disability
• pediatrics
• spiritual health
• spirituality

Conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada funded Cycle 7 of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey in Canada. Additional support for this analysis included an operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR Grant MOP 341188). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. International coordinator of the 2014 HBSC survey was Dr. Jo Inchley, University of St. Andrews, Scotland. The international databank manager was DR. Oddrun Samdal, University of Bergen, Norway. The Canadian principal investigators of the 2014 HBSC study were Drs. John Freeman and William Pickett, Queen's University; its national coordinator was Matthew King. We also thank the Pan-Canadian Joint Consortium for School Health (JCSH; Executive Director, Katherine Kelly).